WRITERS ABROAD MAGAZINE : THE THIRD SPACE
OUTCAST
BY Vanessa Couchman
She bared her fangs whenever I passed by the cage . Her yellow eyes blazed and my guts turned to water . What would happen if she got loose ?
They didn ’ t normally have that effect on me , but this one was different . It had taken four strong men to capture her and hold her down . It was a long chase , they said , out of the village , through the forest , over the hills .
They got her at last by the river , out of breath and spent . She still managed to bite Tom Wetherby on the hand . He says it ’ s festering . Old Alice gave him some kind of ointment , but it hasn ’ t done any good . Tom looked terrible this morning , shaking with fever and blotchy in the face . I don ’ t give much for his chances .
When they brought her in , she was tied up firm but still struggling and snarling and spitting . We managed to get the chain on her and then she lay quiet . But those yellow eyes followed me all the time ; they bored like gimlets into my back . She never uttered a sound but I knew she wanted nothing better than to sink her teeth into me , too .
I ’ m glad it ’ s all over . These last few months have been a nightmare . Ever since she started roaming around the village , things have been happening , evil things .
First there was the miller ’ s baby , snatched from his cradle and never seen again . Then there was old farmer Morton , found in his cow byre with his throat ripped out . People were afraid to walk abroad at night . It was if a demon had come amongst us .
Everyone blamed her . We stood guard every night in turns . But she always managed to avoid capture until the day she was seen rummaging in the midden for scraps . Then they hunted her down .
When I put the torch to the fire , those eyes blazed even yellower and more savage . The flames licked around her and she started to howl . There was a smell like singeing fur . The crowd pointed at her and cried aloud , ‘ Witch ! Witch ! Witch !’
4 | NOVEMBER 2017